5 Minute Reads | Anthology

The Struggle

By Purple_Pixi3

The blizzard removes the illusion of her eyes. With sight she is not alone, she is one of many in the world and the world is full of interesting things to see, to touch to feel, to keep my mind anchored in time and space. But as the white flakes whirl around her in an angry vortex. She is as alone as she would be in the bleakness of space and cold, so cold. She reaches out with a gloved hand to guide her way but it is swallowed before it has gone even a few inches. To save her eyes from the blinding white she must narrow them until they are almost shut, and all the while the wind rages without end, only reducing its ferocity long enough to gather the strength for another attack. All her heart can do is beat warm blood around her veins in a hope that the storm will end, all her mind can do is plan the most logical path to warmth, safety and to something more tangible than light and snow.

Depression is the unseen, unheard, silent killer. It's the pain that's too much to cope with, too hard to deal with and so misunderstood. You can't escape it no matter how hard you try, because it follows you around like a black shadow that's on the inside, eating you. It is always over her, casting its shadow on her life. It is hung by a thin thread, too fragile to hold something so heavy. Most of the time she doesn't know what caused the thread to finally break releasing the weight on her. It fell too fast, and before she could run she'd be pinned down. It crushed her ribs, made it hard for her to breathe. She tried to scream; a cry for help was of no use. No one else could see it - the weight that had been slowly crushing her to death...

She awoke to find herself not in her cozy bed, or even in the protection of her house. She awoke to find herself in another world, a world of suffering. As the numbness of sleep slowly faded from her limbs. She felt dead grass poking into her back, like tiny needles. She opened her eyes and gasped in a breath, but nothing came and she choked on her own dry tongue. There was no air in this menacing world; lack of oxygen descended on her mind in a panic, in desperation she sucked in another breath, burning her lungs with a ferocity that consumed her. Mist descended on her eyes. Through the misty veil surrounding her eyes she could barely make out dead white trees like bony fingers stretching for the dark sunless sky. She could feel her heart beating against her rib cage, slowing every second.

Then he came into her life, like a shooting star that beamed down through the darkness. He pulled her lifeless body out of the gloom and into the light once more, leaving a smile eternally plastered upon her lips. 

A story written metaphorically about depression.